Success Story Pelikan Technologies Inc.

High-precision disk made of plastics by thinXXS supports Finger-FriendlyTM Testing.

Maybe you think that daily blood sampling is a painless routine for people with diabetes. But just ask: the daily âprickâ into the sensitive fingertip is quite painful, and causes bruising, calluses, and causes finger damage that impacts daily activities. Some people with diabetes avoid regular testing because of the pain of lancing. Pelikan Technologies has just introduced the Pelikan Sun, the world's first and only electronic lancing device that will change the paradigm of diabetes care: its precise, electronically controlled lancing is so smooth that you barely feel it! You'll ask yourself: what finger did I just test? followed by how can I get one?

The innovation and heart of this electronic lancing device is a disk made of plastics that contains 50 sterile lancets, meaning users never see or touch lancets again! This high-precision plastic device has been developed by thinXXS Microtechnology AG in Germany. The disk is also produced by thinXXS via micro injection molding.

Challenge

In spite of its macroscopic dimensions, the disk contains extreme microtechnical details that are essential for the entire functionality of this component: the lancets have to be precisely and reproducibly positioned and only a planarity of a few micrometers allows a safe sterilization of each chamber. To meet these demanding specifications it was necessary to implement a special technology for toolmaking, which has been a core competence of thinXXS for years. The same extreme specifications apply for the micromolding of the disposables. These were realized successful after an intensive development with Pelikan Technologies.